I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!

IllinoisLady

If he is too old for prison then he is way, way too old to be a president. Grahams brain has left and he doesn't know where to find it. He is pathetic.

IllinoisLady

When you honor your most authentic self--your Spirit--you are
allowing your Light to shine and touch the world. Living
authentically, in its simplest terms, is living your Truth, the
truth in your heart and soul. It's allowing yourself to be guided
by Divine Truth and Wisdom, each and every day, and doing
your Highest, most authentic work in the world.
It's joyfully creating and living your Highest purpose!

Valerie Rickel

IllinoisLady

Nsbrown54

ruthbru

Nsbrown54

Oklahoma Teacher Disciplined for Sharing Access to Banned Books Has Quit

OK Governor uncomfortable with books that reference "discriminatory principles."

Nsbrown54

LOUISIANA SCHOOL LIBRARIAN OF THE YEAR SEEKING LEGAL ACTION AFTER SLANDER CAMPAIGN

Amanda .. “Jones, who serves as the President of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians, now finds herself at the center of a coordinated attack campaign by the groups Citizens for a New Louisiana and a local political Facebook group because of a speech she gave at her local public library board meeting.“

“The speech named no books, and Jones was among 20 community members who showed up at the board meeting to speak. All but one of those spoke out against book and book display censorship in the library.

ChiSandy

Ruth, the Brooklyn Public Library opened up the world to me when I was only four and got my first library card (though I had to use only the children's section till I was eight). Whenever I step into a public library and get that familiar whiff of good paper mixed with clothbound book covers, all the happy memories come flooding back.

DivineMrsM

I am very much looking forward to watching this upcoming series with Hillary and Chelsea Clinton: “Gutsy" beginning September 9 on Apple+. I hope it does not disappoint, Here's an article about it which is rather long, so I'm posting part of it with a link at the end if you care to read its entirety:

*A Gutsy move: Hillary and Chelsea Clinton get real on their new TV series*

by Clarissa Cruz August 23, 2022 - Entertainment Weekly)

~ Long the subject of media scrunity, the Clintons turn the spotlight on bold, brave women making positive change in the world — and reveal an unexpected side of themselves in the process. ~

It's almost impossible to go into an interview with Hillary and Chelsea Clinton without some preconceptions. They have, after all, been on the global stage for the better part of four decades, with scenes from their public lives as familiar (if not as mundane) as our own: a preteen Chelsea on her father Bill's campaign trail; the presidential family walking hand in hand on the White House lawn, post-Lewinsky scandal; Hillary's emotional concession speech after the 2016 election.

So it's a bit surreal to sit waiting for the Clinton women to join a Zoom chat about their new Apple TV+ show Gutsy — so much so that when their polished, smiling images appear on the screen, it initially looks like a promotional still, a digital placeholder to contemplate until the pair signs on. That is, until Hillary shifts and bellows "Hello!" in her distinctive cadence, reminding us of the actual person behind the public persona.

It's a recurring theme in their eight-part docuseries (premiering Sept. 9), where the Clintons sit down with prominent female stars, activists, and community leaders to talk about how they're making positive change in the world — but also pulls back the curtain on two very famous, very private and very, yes, gutsy women themselves. "That was the big goal," says Gutsy executive producer/showrunner Anna Chai (The Mind of a Chef, Anthony Bourdain's The Layover). "We think we know Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, but it was such a lovely surprise to find out they are funny and warm and up for anything. Once we got a little sense of that in the initial pre-production, we really wanted to put that front and center, because that's a side of them that's playful and personal that most of the world has never seen."

>>> [Guests include: Megan Thee Stallion, Kim Kardashian, Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, Amber Ruffin, Jane Goodall, Gloria Steinem, and another mother-daughter duo, Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn — as well as everyday heroes like firefighter Jackie Michelle Martinez and gun violence activist Shannon Watts.]

https://ew.com/tv/hillary-clinton-chelsea-get-real-gutsy-docuseries-cover-story/

DivineMrsM

Another long article, but one with a hopeful message. It's a Washington Post article; I will post some of it with a link for the rest below. I remain astonished how so many adults still do not think teens should be educated about sex other than abstinence only.

After Roe, teens are teaching themselves sex ed, because the adults won't

Hannah Natanson August 23, 2022

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Sweating in the sun, two dozen teenagers spread themselves across picnic blankets in a grassy park and prepared to discuss the facts of life they never learned in school.

Behind them on a folding table, bouquets of pamphlets offered information teachers at school would never share — on the difference between medical and surgical abortions, and how to get them. Beside the pamphlets sat items adults at school would never give: pregnancy tests and six-packs of My Way Emergency Contraceptive.

Emma Rose Smith, 17, rose from the blankets, tucked her pale-blonde hair behind her ears and turned off the music on a small, black speaker. She faced the assembled high-schoolers, all members of her newfound group, Teens for Reproductive Rights, and began talking about the nonprofit Abortion Care Tennessee. Her words hitched at first, then tumbled in a rush.

"A little bit about them," Emma Rose said, "is they're an organization that funds people's abortions if they can't afford it. Also, by the way, there's another organization that we can also talk about later, when we give you guys, like, resources, that actually does free mail-in abortion pills."

Twelve days after the teens' picnic, abortion would become illegal in Tennessee, a measure made possible by the Supreme Court's June decision, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade. The students wouldn't hear anything about it in school: State law does not require sex education, and it holds that schools in areas with high pregnancy rates must offer "family life education" focused on abstinence.

Post-Roe, the teens in the park had decided, this lack of education was no longer acceptable. They are part of a burgeoning movement of high-schoolers nationwide who, after Roe's fall, are stepping up to demand more comprehensive lessons on reproduction, contraception and abortion — and who, if the adults refuse, are teaching each other instead.

In Utah, high-schoolers rallied outside a courthouse in May to call for accurate education on sex and abortion. In Texas, a group of teens held a virtual protest on the gaming website Minecraft to urge the state to start giving middle-schoolers lessons on birth control. Over the summer, that group — Fort Bend Students United for Reproductive Freedom — began sharing mini-sex-education lessons to its Instagram account for the benefit of peers; recent posts include "Endometrial Ablation," "Pap smears" and "WHAT IS PCOS?" (It is an initialism for polycystic ovary syndrome.)

And in Virginia, 15-year-old Rivka Vizcardo-Lichter is organizing demonstrations outside school board meetings to pressure the Fairfax County district to offer students information about reproductive health clinics, more detailed lessons on contraceptive methods other than abstinence (it already includes the basics, but she wants more) — and access to contraception.

"Teenagers are teenagers, and some teenagers are going to have sex," she said. "They need to be educated on how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and STIs [sexually transmitted infections] and sexual risk — especially if we're removing the right to ... choose whether or not you're having a baby."

Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia require that students receive sex education at school, according to a tracker maintained by the nonprofit Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).

Thirty states demand that schools emphasize the importance of abstinence, and 16 states mandate "abstinence-only" sex education.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/08/23/teen-sex-education-roe/

IllinoisLady

Divine -- I have to reread, but so thrilled you shared the links.

and:

Donald Trump reaps the mistrust he sowed: Mar-a-Lago leaves him paranoid and confused

During the pandemic, there was a lot of discussion about the use of "trusted voices" to persuade people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. This is apparently a well-known concept in the field of public health because it's often difficult to get people to change behaviors or accept unfamiliar interventions. You'll recall that it was often advised that people speak to their family doctors if they had questions since surveys show that people trust them to tell the truth. Health care organizations also advised outreach to faith leaders, particularly in communities of color, since many "will only trust voices, leaders, and organizations that have consistently served them, and many of those voices are found in their places of worship." Farmers were recruited in rural areas because they know about vaccinations and "herd immunity."

Read the rest from Heather Digby Parton.

IllinoisLady

Joy is what we are, not what we must get.

Joy is the realization that all we want or need in life
has been etched into our souls.
Joy helps us see not what we are "going through,"
but what we are "growing to"--a greater sense of
understanding, accomplishment, and enlightenment.
Joy reveals to us the calm at the end of the storm,
the peace that surpasses the momentary happiness of pleasure.
If we keep our minds centered on joy, joy becomes a state of mind.

Iyanla Vanzant

IllinoisLady

I have been in one Hobby Lobby store -- once. Once was enough. That was several yrs. ago. I had a cousin who liked the store and I was with her shopping -- so. I'm sure it pre-dated the feelings of today. I thought at the time the store was over-crowded with items very few people really needed and I thought of some of the merchandise as either a bit gawdy or else stupid if used for decorative purposes. Then again, I'm not a good crafter with imagination so the store just didn't make sense to me and now that politics is in the mix -- if all the stores suddenly went 'pouf' I wouldn't miss anyting at all.

IllinoisLady

The Bitchy Pundit

2d ·

Here's an example of the super classy and deeply profound messages I receive on a daily basis.

Be warned: if you opt for private messages, I'm going to make them public because you should be as proud of your activities on social media as I am of mine.

Nsbrown54

Nsbrown54

Nsbrown54

ruthbru

IllinoisLady

Love the memes. I did read ( and I think I shared the article ) that Bobert and some others really use some dumbness just for publicity pretty much. That is likely so since some of what they do and say is too dumb for anyone -- but I still find myself wondering about the parts they really DON'T know. They bet on their side ( and it seems mainly so ) not to care and so they don't lose too much by using their 'publicity' since we don't like them and are going to find fault in general anyway.

And they all do as much as they can to not let facts get in their way. Then again, hopefully, it will help us at election time.

IllinoisLady

Proof that they really don't care, and know they will make a few points with the orange Loon's people while the rest of us see this like cheap costume jewelry.

IllinoisLady

and deliver us from Reps. while you're at it.

IllinoisLady

Obviously the Loon's kids didn't waste too much of their time on proper studies.

IllinoisLady

The hammer of Thor is going to be busy on this bunch -- all who have said at one time or other something about words and consequences.

IllinoisLady

DivineMrsM

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DivineMrsM

From Heather Cox Richardson's Thursday post:

…after a day of Republican congress members railing against yesterday's educational loan forgiveness of up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 for others, the White House tweeted a thread of those members alongside the amount of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money those individuals were forgiven.

*Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said: "For our government just to say ok your debt is completely forgiven.. it's completely unfair." Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.

* Representative Vern Buchanan (R-FL) said: "Biden's reckless, unilateral student loan giveaway is unfair to the 87 percent of Americans without student loan debt and those who played by the rules." Buchanan had more than $2.3 million in PPP loans forgiven.

* Representative Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said: "We do not need farmers and ranchers, small business owners, and teachers in Oklahoma paying the debts of Ivy League lawyers and doctors across the U.S." Mullin had more than $1.4 million in PPP loans forgiven.

* Representative Kevin Hern (R-OK) said: "To recap, in the last two weeks, the 'Party of the People' has supercharged the IRS to go after working-class Americans, raised their taxes, and forced them to pay for other people's college degrees." Hern had more than $1 million in PPP loans forgiven.

* Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) said: "Asking plumbers and carpenters to pay off the loans of Wall Street advisors and lawyers isn't just unfair. It's also bad policy." Kelly had $987,237 in PPP loans forgiven.

* Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said: Everyone knows that in a $60 Billion+ European land war, it's always the last $3 Billion that kicks in the door…." Gaetz had $482,321 in PPP loans forgiven.

Nsbrown54

Nsbrown54

IllinoisLady

https://bit.ly/3wxADeS The Affidavit.

IllinoisLady

The natural world teaches us the power of change. As seasons shift, I see the purpose and beauty of life's cyclicality. I see the promise of spring, the ripening of summer, the bounty of harvest and that mysterious containment of winter. All seasons work for the good. So it is, too, with the changing cycles of my life. As I surrender to the wisdom of a higher plan, I discover in all circumstances the opportunity for growth and expansion. There is no season in my life that is without worth. There is no season in my life that does not unfold my highest good. Challenged by difficult times, I consciously choose to affirm the goodness of life's timing.

Julia Cameron